Unknown Relatives Meet By Coincidence

An interesting coincidence example from Pat McLoughlin plus one of my own.

Blaenau Ffestiniog

My wife and our children were going on holiday to Pwllheli in Wales. As we were driving up the hill going out of Betws-y-Coed our car decided to break down. We stopped completely at the top of the hill.

This happened a few years back before mobile phones were in general use. As we were stuck I tried to flag down other passing cars but none stopped to help. That is until a young couple in their late twenties finally came to our aid.

I told them I was in the RAC (a car breakdown service) and wanted to get to a phone for help. The husband said that he thought there was a public phone in the village near the slate mines of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

They kindly offered me a lift and said they would bring me back to my car after I'd made my call to the RAC.

We found the phone, which had quite a bad line, so I had to speak quite loudly to give my name and the details of where my car was.

When I'd finished making the call the wife of the couple said that she couldn't help but hear that my surname was McLoughlin and that this was also her maiden name. It turned out that her family and relatives came from the same part of Ireland where my parents still live.

Even more of a coincidence, we found out later, was that we are distantly related.

At the time the couple told us that it was a spur of a moment idea for them to decide to pay a visit to the slate mines, and that was how they had come to see us at the side of the road.

The chances of this happening must be so remote. I thought that it was weird as though some unknown force had derived such a rescue. Since that time we have become very good friends with the other couple and still visit each other regularly.

- Pat McLoughlin
(Photo source)

When I had finished setting up this post it was time to have something to eat in the evening. Feeling lazy we put the television on while eating - okay I know it's not a good habit! - and the programme we watched was Great British Railway Journeys. By coincidence the places they travelled to were Betws-y-Coed and Blaenau Ffestiniog as mentioned in the above story. They are not exactly places you hear very often on television.

Other Coincidence Stories:
1899 Coincidence Club Coincidence
Five New Brooms Arrived By Coincidence
Golfing Coincidence Humour